Ronald DeFeo, Jr.
Ronald Joseph DeFeo Junior was born on September 26,
1951. He was tried and convicted for the
1974 murders of his father and mother, two brothers and two sisters. The case is notable for being the real life inspiration behind the book and film versions of
The Amityville Horror.
On the evening of November 13
1974,
Suffolk County Police received an emergency phone call from a member of the public directing them to 112 Ocean Avenue,
Amityville,
Long Island,
New York. On arriving at the property they found the bodies of six members of the same family dead in their beds. [
1]
The victims were Ronald DeFeo Senior, 43, Louise DeFeo, 42, and four of their children, Dawn, 18, Allison, 13, Marc, 11, and John Matthew, 9. All of the victims had been shot with a .35 caliber lever action
Marlin rifle at around three o'clock in the morning of that day.
Their 23 year old eldest son, Ronald DeFeo Junior, also known as "Butch", was taken into protective custody after suggesting to police officers at the scene of the crime that the killings might have been carried out by a mob hit man by the name of Louis Falini. However, an interview with DeFeo at the local police station rapidly exposed serious inconsistencies in his version of events, and the following day he confessed to carrying out the killings himself. He told detectives: "Once I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast."
The murder trial of Ronald DeFeo began on October 14,
1975. DeFeo and his defense lawyer William Weber mounted a defense of
insanity, with DeFeo claiming that voices in his head had urged him to carry out the killings. The insanity plea was supported by the psychiatrist for the defense, Doctor Daniel Schwartz. The psychiatrist for the prosecution, Doctor Harold Zolan, maintained that although DeFeo suffered from
antisocial personality disorder and was an abuser of
heroin and
LSD, he was aware of his actions at the time of the crime. On November 21,
1975, DeFeo was found guilty on six counts of
second-degree murder. On December 4,
1975, Judge Thomas Stark sentenced Ronald DeFeo Junior to six consecutive twenty five year to life sentences. DeFeo is currently held in
Green Haven Correctional Facility,
Beekman, New York, and his most recent parole appeal in
1999 was turned down.
All six of the victims were found lying face down in their beds with no signs of a struggle or sedatives having been administered, leading to claims that someone in the house would have been awakened by the sound of the first gunshot being fired. Ronald DeFeo has given a number of accounts of how the killings were carried out, all of them inconsistent.
On September 30,
2000, Ronald DeFeo gave an interview in which he admitted to murdering his family, but stated that his sister Dawn DeFeo and two other friends were co-conspirators. He claimed that the plan had been to kill only his parents, but that while he was pursuing one of the friends who had fled the scene, Dawn murdered the children. Ronald DeFeo claimed that the plan had originally been to take the children to their grandparents' home but Dawn wanted to eliminate them as witnesses. He also claimed that Dawn was jealous of her little sister and wanted her dead. Ronald said that he was enraged by his sister, knocked her unconscious on to the bed and as she lay there, he shot her in the head. Attempts to contact the two friends who were alleged accomplices on the night of the murders have failed, since one is now dead and the other is thought to have entered a witness protection program. The most likely cause of the murders was Ronald DeFeo's Junior's stormy relationship with his father, but why the entire family was killed remains unclear. The prosecution at his trial suggested that the motive for the murders was to collect on the life insurance policies of his parents. [
2] [
3]
Joe Nickell notes that given the frequency with which Ronald DeFeo has changed his story over the years, any new claims from him regarding the events that took place on the night of the murders should be regarded with skepticism. [
4]
The best selling book
The Amityville Horror by
Jay Anson was published in September
1977. The book is based on the twenty eight day period during December
1975 and January
1976 in which George and Kathy Lutz and their three children lived at 112 Ocean Avenue. The Lutz family fled the house, claiming that they had been terrorized by
paranormal phenomena while living there. The book and its film versions are covered in more detail in the Wikipedia article
The Amityville Horror.
*
The Story of Ronald DeFeo Jr at thenightexposed.com*
Injustices of Amityville*
The Night Exposed Message Boards*
The Official Amityville Horror Website*
The case at Court TV's Crime Library*
The Amityville Murders website*
Amityville Crime Scene Photos - WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC, MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME*
Transcript of 911 emergency call to Suffolk County Police reporting the shootings.
